Lewis and Clark Expedition them. Many tribes of Indians lived along the
In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and way. Interesting animals did too.
William Clark began an exciting adventure. The Louisiana Purchase They led a group of American explorers on The story of Lewis and Clark starts a long trip. There were no cars or airplanes. with Thomas Jefferson. He was president of The men used boats and horses. They went the United States. It was 1803. At that time, through land in which only Indian tribes the country ended at the Mississippi River. lived. They left from the mouth of the Most Americans lived near the Atlantic Missouri River. They went all the way to Ocean. The land that would one day be the Pacific Ocean and back. They were South Dakota lay between the Mississippi called the Corps of Discovery. Their journey River and the Rocky Mountains. This whole was almost 8,000 miles long. It took them area was known as Louisiana. Many two years to make. Part of the trip was along American Indians lived there. A few fur the Missouri River in what is now South traders did, too. Most white people had Dakota. never been there. To them, it was the “Great The explorers wanted to see if they Unknown.” could get to the Pacific Ocean by river. They Thomas Jefferson had a dream. He also wanted to make friends with the dreamed that one day the United States Indians. They hoped to trade with them in would stretch from ocean to ocean. Trains the future. On the trip, the explorers kept and cars did not yet exist. Few people journals. Every day they wrote about the thought that so much land could be united things they saw. They wrote about things so into one country. that scientists and settlers could read about President Jefferson thought it could Then they would move into the Pacific
be. He wanted to know if the Missouri River Northwest. This area was also called the
ran all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Or did Oregon country. England, Russia, Spain,
it connect with other rivers that did? Could and the United States claimed this land.
these rivers be used as a highway? Lewis and Clark would give the United
The president asked the United States a stronger claim. They would explore
States Congress to authorize an expedition. it for the government.
It would go across Louisiana. From there, it On May 14, 1804, the Corps of would go into the Pacific Northwest. Discovery started up the Missouri River.
Congress said yes. Jefferson chose They left from near Saint Louis, Missouri.
Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. There were nearly fifty men. One was a
Lewis asked a friend to share the job. His black man named York. The men moved
friend’s name was William Clark. The two upstream in a big boat and two canoes. The
men were the captains. river was not easy to navigate. In eleven
At the same time, the president days, they went only sixty miles. Not until
negotiated with France to buy Louisiana. August did they get as far as present-day Elk
The United States paid three cents an acre Point, South Dakota.
for the land. It was called the Louisiana Vocabulary Purchase. It made the United States twice as authorize (v.), to give power or money to big as it was. expedition (n.), a trip or journey with goals The purchase of Louisiana was good explorers (n.), people who travel to new news for Lewis and Clark. Now the men places to learn would explore part of their own country. fur traders (n.), people who buy and sell
animal furs for a living journals (n.), books that people write ideas
or experiences in; a diary navigate (v.), to travel in and control the
path of a boat or plane negotiated (v.), made a deal with others Meeting the Tribes Pierre Dorion acted as interpreter.
Lewis and Clark were not the first He was a French-Canadian fur trader. He
white people to visit the future state of South lived with the Yanktons. Lewis and Clark
Dakota. Fur traders like Pierre Dorion and met Dorion coming down the river in June.
Toussaint Charbonneau did, too. Lewis and Dorion was going to Saint Louis to sell furs.
Clark’s trip was the first official expedition. Lewis and Clark hired him to go back up the
The Corps of Discovery reached the river with them. He would talk to the mouth of the Big Sioux River in August Indians for them.
1804. They hiked six miles to Spirit Mound. Lewis and Clark told theYanktons
The Indians thought little devils lived on this that Louisiana was now part of the United
hill. The explorers did not see spirits. They States. They asked them to trade with
only saw “a most beautiful landscape,” American fur traders. The explorers asked
Clark wrote. the tribe to send chiefs to meet the president.
Lewis and Clark next met with a The Yanktons wanted to trade for
group of Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota) guns. Lewis and Clark could not. They
Indians. The explorers had been waiting to needed their weapons for the trip. They gave
meet the Sioux. They were a large and the Indians small flags and clothing instead.
powerful nation. These Indians controlled Pierre Dorion told the Indians why. He said
the upper Missouri River. Their strength that the Americans were explorers, not
was famous as far away as Saint Louis. The traders. He helped the Yanktons understand
corps met the Yanktons, or Nakotas, at why Lewis and Clark did not trade with
Calumet Bluff. They were near today’s them.
Gavins Point Dam. It was late August. The Yanktons agreed to do what the A fight between two Teton chiefs
corps asked them. They warned the made matters worse. Lewis and Clark
explorers about the Tetons, or Lakota treated Black Buffalo as the head chief.
Sioux. They might not be so friendly. The They made Partisan and his men angry.
explorers went on up the river. Dorion These Indians grabbed a canoe. They told
stayed behind. He would take the Yankton the explorers it was payment for using the
chiefs to Washington, D.C. river. Clark drew his sword, and the Tetons
Next the Corps of Discovery met the strung their bows. Black Buffalo calmed
Tetons. They were near what is now Fort them all down. The two groups parted
Pierre. It was the end of September. The peacefully.
Tetons were strong. They were well known There were more Tetons than
for making others pay to use the river. Lewis explorers. If they had fought, many people
and Clark needed a good interpreter. They from both sides would have died. American
had left Dorion with the Yanktons. The history might have been different. Instead, explorers used sign language and a little Lewis and Clark finished the trip. When
Lakota. They asked the Tetons to accept they got back, Americans thought they could
Thomas Jefferson as their leader. They also settle the West without problems with the asked them to trade with the United States. Indians.
The Tetons did not like these ideas. They Next Lewis and Clark met the had a monopoly on trade on the upper Arikaras. The Arikaras were farmers. They
Missouri River. They did not want lived near present-day Mobridge. The
competition. Tetons forced the Arikaras to trade with them. The Arikaras had to give them their crops at low prices. The Arikaras were not allowed to hunt for themselves. They had to trade with the Tetons for everything they needed.
The Arikaras were happy to meet
Lewis and Clark, who might bring new chances for trade. They agreed to send a chief to meet the president.
Vocabulary competition (n.), a struggle with others to
control something or to be the best interpreter (n.), a person who tells people
who do not speak each other’s language
what is being said monopoly (n.), total control of buying and
selling goods official (adj.), approved by people in charge Grasslands, Animals, and Plants Their towns are not as big as they once
The explorers met the Tetons and the were.
Arikaras on the high plains. The high plains Lewis and Clark called pronghorns
lie in the middle of the Great Plains. The “goats” when they first saw them. People
Great Plains are one of the largest grasslands today often call them “antelopes.” That in the world. In this environment, Lewis name is not right, either. The pronghorn and Clark saw new plants and animals. The (Antilocapra americana) belongs to a trip between the Niobrara River and the Bad different animal family from the goat or
River was the most exciting. Here Lewis and antelope. Lewis and Clark killed the first
Clark found many plants and animals that pronghorn in Lyman County. Lewis thought scientists had never seen before. It was the it ran faster than a race horse. He was right. most important zoological part of the whole The pronghorn is one of the fastest animals trip. in the world. Only the cheetah is faster.
Near Gregory County, South Dakota, Near the same place, the corps killed
Lewis and Clark first saw prairie dogs its first white-tailed jack rabbit (Lepus
(Cynomys ludovicianus). They called them townsendi). Jack rabbits are not really
“barking squirrels.” Lewis and Clark were rabbits. They are hares. Hares do not right. Prairie dogs are in the squirrel family. burrow into the ground, and their babies are
These animals dig tunnels for homes and born with fur. Lewis guessed that jack live together in big groups. The size of their rabbits could jump up to twenty feet. He was
“towns” amazed the corps. The first town right. Jack rabbits adjust well to South the explorers saw covered four acres. Dakota winter. Their fur turns white to
Prairie dogs still live in South Dakota today. match snow. The explorers shot a new type of Buffaloberry shrubs have bright green deer near Chamberlain. They named it a leaves and red berries. American Indians mule deer. To them, these animals looked used them for food. They made things like like other deer in the way that mules look pemmican, which they still do. Lewis and like horses. Mule deer (Odocoileus Clark made small pies with the fruit. hemionus) are bigger and have longer ears On September 21, the corps reached than white-tailed deer. the Big Bend in the Missouri River near Fort
The next day, the corps caught the Thompson. The corps measured the land first coyote (Canis latrans). Lewis and across to the other side. It was about a mile.
Clark had been trying for five weeks to By water, it was thirty miles. Near the Big catch one to send back to scientists in the Bend, they found six new plants.
East. Today, the coyote is South Dakota’s The corps found silver sagebrush state animal. (Artemisia cana) on October 1. They were
The explorers also made botanical near the mouth of the Cheyenne River. discoveries. They wrote in their journals Silver sagebrush grows in bunches. It about the plants they found. In August, they provides habitat for many animals. Wildlife wrote about the prairie turnip (Psoralea also use it for winter food when other plants esculenta). The Lakotas called it tinpsila. are covered with snow.
This plant has a starchy root. It can be eaten Vocabulary like a potato. It can also be pounded into a botanical (adj.), dealing with plants flour and made into bread. environment (n.), the natural land and In Bon Homme County, they first weather conditions needed by animals or saw buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea). plants to live and grow Great Plains (n.), a semi-dry region east of
the Rocky Mountains in the United States
and Canada habitat (n.), a place to live pemmican (n.), dried meat mixed and
pressed with fat and often dried berries zoological (adj.), dealing with animals Journey into the Unknown Her name was Sacagawea. She had a baby
The Corps of Discovery left present- boy. His name was Jean Baptiste. day South Dakota on October 14. They In the spring, some explorers went moved on to what is now North Dakota. back down the Missouri River. They took
They came to a large Mandan Indian village. plants and animals to Saint Louis. The rest
It was November. The men had been on the of the men went up the Missouri River. trip for 164 days. They had gone 1,600 Sacagawea and her son went with them. miles. Now they were going into lands that had not
At that time, 4,500 people lived in been mapped. The Mandan village was the the Mandan village. In fact, more people last point on the river that fur traders knew. lived there than in Washington, D.C. The When Indian tribes saw Sacagawea
Mandans were farmers. They traded their and her son, they did not worry. A woman crops to other tribes. They traded for horses and child with the expedition was a sign of and buffalo robes. Their village was a peace. Most tribes greeted Lewis and Clark trading center. Tribes from up and down the as friends. Sacagawea was helpful to the
Missouri River came there. corps just by being along. She also helped
The Corps of Discovery built a fort by knowing landmarks and the Shoshone nearby. They lived there during the winter. language. She saved papers and supplies
Lewis and Clark named it Fort Mandan in when a boat filled with water. The corps honor of their new friends. During the was then in present-day Montana. winter, they hired Toussaint Charbonneau as Not until November of 1805 did the an interpreter. He was a French-Canadian Corps of Discovery reach its goal. The men fur trader. His wife was a Shoshone Indian. saw the Pacific Ocean at last. They built a small fort in present-day Oregon. They and animals. They had made friends with
named it for the Clatsop Indians. They most of the Indians they met. The expedition moved into Fort Clatsop on Christmas day. opened the door for more Americans to go
They explored the surrounding west and settle.
country while waiting for spring. A group
of men went to the seacoast to make salt.
Lewis and Clark had a lot of time to write in
their journals. Their writings and the maps
they drew were among the most important
products of the expedition.
The corps left for home in March of
1806. In August, they were back at the
Mandan village. They said good-bye to
Sacagawea and her family. Two years after they first came to South Dakota, the corps was there again. The explorers were floating down the Missouri River fast. They went up to seventy miles each day. They quickly left
South Dakota behind.
The Corps of Discovery’s adventure was over. They were back in Saint Louis.
Lewis and Clark had mapped new lands.
They had written about interesting plants